This well-researched and erudite book is also a thoroughly engaging read. As part of a series entitled Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History it will appeal to social, cultural and demographic historians as well as medical professionals. In recent years there has been a growing number of voices calling for the reassessment of our understanding of the fertility transition, citing a need for a greater understanding of fertility limitation and the attitudes of, and practices adopted by, individuals and couples who wanted to avoid conception. Hionidou’s work is an impressive response to this plea. Abortion and Contraception sets out with two main objectives: to re-evaluate the timing of the fertility transition in Greece and to understand the processes contributing to the decline in fertility. The first of these is dealt with in a single chapter considering Greek fertility trends between 1870 and 1967. Hionidou notes the debate over the Princeton European Fertility Project’s estimate that the county’s fertility transition had begun in the 1890s, before arguing persuasively that even as late as 1931 the country’s age-specific fertility curves were still characteristic of a natural fertility regime. Rates of fertility had been low over the previous three decades but this was ‘not because couples were intentionally controlling their fertility but because of the turbulent history of the country in those years and its effects on the lives of the population’ (p. 39). Couples had not been using parity-specific family limitation but, possibly unintentionally, had been spacing their children, creating a ‘natural’ fertility profile. The much more complex question of how Greek couples may have reduced their fertility takes up the remainder of the book. Hionidou pulls together cultural, medical, societal and economic factors to show that the use of ‘birth control’ evolved over a relatively long period, with changes in attitude and new innovations creating occasional, but not necessarily immediate, ‘step changes’ in practice. She takes pains to highlight the role of doctors in fertility control in Greece during her period, and is careful to describe how very similar practices can have very different meanings to different generations. Her arguments are enhanced by extracts drawn from two sets

中文翻译：

---

Violetta Hionidou，现代希腊的堕胎和避孕，1830-1967：医学、性和流行文化（伦敦：Palgrave Macmillan 2020）。第 xix 页 + 361 + 黑白插图 2 + 彩色插图 11。69.99 英镑精装本，49.99 英镑平装本，55.99 英镑电子书。

这本经过深入研究和博学的书也是一本引人入胜的读物。作为“现代历史中的医学和生物医学科学”系列的一部分，它将吸引社会、文化和人口历史学家以及医学专业人士。近年来，越来越多的声音呼吁重新评估我们对生育转变的理解，理由是需要更多地了解生育限制以及想要避免生育的个人和夫妇的态度和采取的做法概念。Hionidou 的作品是对这一请求的令人印象深刻的回应。堕胎和避孕有两个主要目标：重新评估希腊生育率转变的时机，并了解导致生育率下降的过程。其中第一章在考虑 1870 年至 1967 年之间的希腊生育率趋势的单独一章中讨论。Hionidou 注意到关于普林斯顿欧洲生育率项目估计该县的生育率转变始于 1890 年代的辩论，然后有说服力地争论说，即使迟到1931 年该国的年龄别生育率曲线仍然是自然生育制度的特征。在过去的 30 年里，生育率一直很低，但这“不是因为夫妻有意控制他们的生育率，而是因为那些年国家动荡的历史及其对人口生活的影响”（第 39 页） . 夫妇们并没有使用特定于生育的家庭限制，但可能是无意的，他们一直在间隔他们的孩子，创造了一个“自然”的生育状况。希腊夫妇如何降低生育率这一更复杂的问题占据了本书的其余部分。Hionidou 将文化、医学、社会和经济因素结合在一起，表明“节育”的使用在相对较长的时期内演变，态度的变化和新的创新在实践中产生了偶尔但不一定立即的“阶梯变化”。她煞费苦心地强调医生在她那个时期在希腊生育控制中的作用，并仔细描述了非常相似的做法对不同世代的意义是多么不同。她的论点通过从两组中提取的摘录得到增强 社会和经济因素表明，“节育”的使用经过了较长时期的演变，态度的变化和新的创新在实践中产生了偶尔但不一定立即的“阶梯式变化”。她煞费苦心地强调医生在她那个时期在希腊生育控制中的作用，并仔细描述了非常相似的做法对不同世代的意义是多么不同。她的论点通过从两组中提取的摘录得到增强 社会和经济因素表明，“节育”的使用经过了较长时期的演变，态度的变化和新的创新在实践中产生了偶尔但不一定立即的“阶梯式变化”。她煞费苦心地强调医生在她那个时期在希腊生育控制中的作用，并仔细描述了非常相似的做法对不同世代的意义是多么不同。她的论点通过从两组中提取的摘录得到增强 并仔细描述了非常相似的做法对不同世代的意义是多么不同。她的论点通过从两组中提取的摘录得到增强 并仔细描述了非常相似的做法对不同世代的意义是多么不同。她的论点通过从两组中提取的摘录得到增强